michaelclements [ Another in a weekly series. ]

The question: What happened to Beer & Politics, the thirst-quenching public-issues forum that you’d been moderating in taverns around town for the past few years on the last Tuesday of every month?

Mike Clements’ answer: Beer and Politics was a casualty of real life. By end of 2009, I was feeling a little worn out. I did a couple in early 2010, then I took a break. In July, I got a new job, which you know a little about [Clements was hired as chief of staff by Long Beach’s newly elected Seventh District City Councilmember James Johnson]. But I’m hoping to restart Beer & Politics in the next month or so—my goal is January, but it may end up being February. I have talked to James Johnson and the City Attorney’s office about whether it would create a problem or a conflict-of-interst. They said as long as I run things the way I have—moderate the discussion fairly, don’t express my own opinions—it shouldn’t be a problem.